Caylee Winpigler
Community standards. Remember those? The list plastered outside your RA’s room? Or the unspoken rules between you and your parents, guardians, or roommates? It defines a code of common courtesy for all those living in a shared space. What is typically the primary concern? Flushing the toilet. Everyone’s biggest fear is stumbling upon the putrid, foul remains of a dead fish that was left unflushed.
While these rules were always important, they set the bar a little low for this year. Coronavirus and its consequences far outweigh any bad smell emanating from an abandoned toilet with too many fish belly-up.
Coronavirus, responding to it maturely, and following Hood College guidelines should be first and foremost, on any list of community standards. No exceptions.
I am a senior at Hood and I understand the temptation to see your friends, hang out, walk downtown, go on a date with that cute guy from history, and spend time “studying” at the baseball house. Our time in college is valuable, and it will be cut short if the Hood community does not follow the procedures in Hood’s New Horizon Plan.
Another part of college is earning the respect of your peers, family, friends, and community. College is a time when you craft the person you want to become. You have the freedom to prove that you can manage your time, make good decisions, and be considerate to others. During this pandemic, your actions are molding who you are. When this is all over, will you be proud of yourself?
These actions are not only shaping you, but your actions have an effect on the community around you. If Hood shuts down, you will be sent home to finish college on your living room couch. Hood’s employees, however, will be out of a job. Struggling to pay rent. Struggling to feed their families. Struggling to pay for medical care.
Please be conscientious in these coming months for those on and off campus. I am living at home and I am eager to get back to campus in the spring. I want my concerns to be proven wrong, and I would love a flood of emails in December, telling me how silly I was to have stayed home.
To put our situation plainly: People are dying and the world we now live in is different than it was last year. These are two undeniable facts that cannot be averted, ignored, or sugar-coated. We must come to terms with these two truths if we hope to beat coronavirus. It is up to us to keep Hood a safe place for the remainder of this semester.
Coronavirus is a dead fish – all we need to do is remember to wear a mask, wash our hands, social distance, use hand sanitizer, stay in small groups, and flush the toilet. If not, the coronavirus memorial of dead fish will grow, and the stench will be on your floor. Don’t stink things up.
The safer we keep Hood, the sooner our concerns can return to: whose fish is this?
With a Hood Hello from afar,
Caylee Marie Winpigler
Walkersville, Maryland
History and Global Studies
Class of 2021
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